


Te Rerenga-wairua

by kyber-erso (aoraki)



Series: Keep me Warm [11]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Force Healing (Star Wars), Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:15:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27659369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aoraki/pseuds/kyber-erso
Summary: Qui-Gon meets a familiar child on the edge of the underworld.Obi-Wan saves his masters life during the events of TPM, at a cost.
Relationships: Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Series: Keep me Warm [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996870
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	Te Rerenga-wairua

Qui-Gon exhaled and was elsewhere. 

He could feel the warmth of the day on his face. The roar of a distant waves backdropped the low whistle of windswept tussok. The force was light here, unrestrained and unhurried. Timeless. 

His heart ached as it reached instinctively out into the nature around him. He rose into the sky on the wing tips of a soaring convo, dived deep into the soil, along an extensive network of a what felt to be an uneti tree.

Qui-Gon was stunned at the range of his reach, at the pure ease of connectivity. It was as if his very being was dissolving, losing corporal form, diffusing out to all corners of the vast galaxy. 

The force sang out to him, with voice so unconceivably familiar, a whispered brush against his ear.

 _Please, please, open your eyes_.

As always, he obeyed. 

Overwhelming brightness of daylight consumed him for a moment, before settling into the open field, overlooking a vast, turbulent ocean. 

Ahead, closer to the cliff edge he could sense an ordered presence, gleaming with life. He was not alone in this place.

He blinked to clear his vision, focus coalescing on a small, pale hand resting on the base of a distant uneti.

A child. 

They were barely tall enough to see above the vast sea of golden grass that hugged the cliff edge. Their face was turned away, downwards, as if to watch the water crash into the cliff edge below. 

A lock of amber caught in the updraft of the waves, flashing as it struck the sunlight filtering down through the leaves of the uneti. To Qui-Gon’s surprise, the child was dressed in temple tunics. How a temple youngling got all the way out here he could not fathom. 

“Hello there!” He called, his voice weaker than intended. It was easily lost in the distance between them. When the child did not move, he trekked onwards, struggling through the prairie to the shade of the uneti. 

“Are you alright, youngling?” He asked, pressing a hand to his chest, winded by the excursion. As he removed his palm he noticed it was was wet with blood, which he supposed was not too unusual. The cool breeze whipped up from the ocean below provided some measure of relief. 

At the sound of his voice, the child finally turned. The boy’s features shifted with some powerful emotion far too aged for his youthful face. The wide, vulnerable green of his eyes caused a swell of paternal affection rise unexpectedly in the man’s chest. 

Qui-Gon inched forward, bloodied hands brushing along the edges of the boy’s face to smooth lines of harshness before resting on thin shoulders. The child had to tilt his head back fully in order to meet his gaze.

“I know you, don’t I?” Qui-Gon asked. The sense of familiarity was undeniable, yet untraceable. On the very edge of awareness. The boy’s eyes tightened with brief anguish and something… final, shuttered.

Qui-Gon's sunk to his knees, seemingly no longer able to find the strength to stand. The boy’s small hands fretted, guiding him down to lay on his back, head resting on the childs tiny knees. One tiny palm rested against his bearded cheekbone. 

"It's alright that you don't remember.” 

The youngling's voice was soft, sweet. The sound was comforting, but weighted with meaning that Qui-Gon couldn’t begin to understand. The man’s weariness was beginning to encroach on his concentration. 

“Forgive yourself.”

Confusion stirred within Qui-Gon, edged with an odd desperation, but the bittersweet note in the youngling's voice left him speechless for clarification.

“Nothing you could have said would have make me stop.” 

Before he could absorb the words, the boy embraced him. Qui-Gon froze, feeling the child’s unusually powerful force presence wrap around his own along with the physical sensation of slight arms across his shoulders. 

His exhaustion seemed to evaporate as their energies merged. Great clouds formed above, drenching the Uneti, causing thick droplets to rain onto his face to collect in his hair. They tasted of salt.

His lungs expanded, filling with air so invigorating he felt as if he had been without for eons. Instinctively, his own arms tightened around the boy’s small frame. 

“Youngling,” he murmured after a time, voice strong, finding the strength to sit up. He encouraged the child’s shockingly grey face from where it had fallen against his tabards. “Force - _what did you do?_ ” 

A dimpled smile graced across the boy’s features as he slumped distressingly in the master’s hold, ageing - 

“It’s alright... I...” The boy whispered, voice becoming indistinct as Qui-Gon’s perception began to change, true recognition sparking. 

“Please, no,” Qui-Gon gasped, waking. _No_.

**Author's Note:**

> More incoherent offerings to the god of nano. Don't look at me.  
> Te Rerenga-wairua - an actual location, where spirits leap into the afterlife in Māori culture.


End file.
